With 189 member countries, staff from more than 170 countries, and offices in over 130 locations, the World Bank Group is a unique global partnership: five institutions working for sustainable solutions that reduce poverty and build shared prosperity in developing countries.

Experts And Leaders

The World Bank Group works in every major area of development. We provide a wide array of financial products and technical assistance, and we help countries share and apply innovative knowledge and solutions to the challenges they face.

Country Groups

Global data and statistics, research and publications, and topics in poverty and development

We face big challenges to help the world’s poorest people and ensure that everyone sees benefits from economic growth. Data and research help us understand these challenges and set priorities, share knowledge of what works, and measure progress.

Teacher Reform in Indonesia: The Role of Politics and Evidence in Policy Making

In 2005, Indonesia implemented the teacher law to improve the quality of its teachers. Under the new law, teachers must obtain certification by completing a 4-year college degree and continue to improve their skills. A program is supporting the government to implement the teacher quality management reform as mandated by the Teacher Law

World Bank Group

In an effort to improve education quality in Indonesia, in 2005 the government passed the Teacher Law, a comprehensive bill designed to raise the quality of teachers.

“I wasn't confident in teaching, because I did not understand good teaching methods. Now I am more confident and the students are more motivated to learn,” said Tina Setiawati, a teacher who benefitted from training provided by a project support the implementation of the teacher law.

A key reform required all teachers to acquire a four-year degree and be certified. Teachers who obtain certification then receive a professional allowance that effectively doubles their salary. By 2015, Indonesia’s 2.7 million teachers expect to be certified.

A new World Bank Group report, entitled "Teacher Reform in Indonesia: The Role of Politics and Evidence in Policy Making", assesses the impact of the Teacher Law and its reforms, on teacher knowledge, skills, and motivations. Equally importantly, the study looks at student learning outcomes. It also explores the bill’s impact on the financing of education, and on the distribution of teachers throughout Indonesia.

The findings are revelatory. They include:

The promise of higher salaries has increased the number of students training to be teachers, from 200,000 students in 2005 to over 1 million teacher aspirants in 2010.

The promise of higher salaries has also prompted teachers to complete the required four-year degree, so that in 2012, the number of certified teachers increased to 63 percent, compared to 23 percent in 2005.

The quality of students applying for teacher training has improved. For example, based on a sample from 15 universities, the average scores of candidates for primary school teachers were higher than the average scores of graduating high school students nation-wide.

The increased salary has prompted teachers to drop their second jobs, and many teachers claim to no longer face income difficulties.

Certification has not increased teachers’ competencies, nor has it improved student learning outcomes.

The costs of salary-doubling has put pressure on the education budget and potentially crowded out other interventions to improve quality. In 2013, nearly USD 4 billion dollars -- or 13 percent of the education budget -- went to the professional allowance alone.

The report provides insight on where improvements can be made:

Linking the number of teacher candidates across all teacher education institutions to the likely number of teachers needed by the education system.

More focus on policies that would lead to an optimal selection of teachers, particularly teachers who will serve at least part of their career in remote and rural areas.

Helping district authorities ensure that schools in their districts offer induction, mentoring, and probation processes for all new teachers, based on the required competencies, and that they are supervised by the principal and school supervisor.

Accounting of academic record and classroom performance before final certification.

Monitoring the methods used by universities to select the school graduates and uncertified teachers for entry into the four-year degree program.

Monitoring the four-year pre-service teacher training program to ensure that it is based on the essential competencies for subject matter and pedagogy.

Pre-service teacher training program to award the degree at an appropriate passing grade.

Implementing quality assurance and mechanisms for continuous professional development, including teacher working groups, in the districts.

Monitoring by principals and supervisors of the performance of certified teachers, and linking performance to career advancement, through annual appraisal of teacher performance.

Requiring re-certification or confirmation of certification every five years.

follow us

newsletter

You have clicked on a link to a page that is not part of the beta version of the new worldbank.org. Before you leave, we’d love to get your feedback on your experience while you were here. Will you take two minutes to complete a brief survey that will help us to improve our website?

Feedback Survey

Thank you for agreeing to provide feedback on the new version of worldbank.org; your response will help us to improve our website.

What was the purpose of your visit to worldbank.org today?

Did the layout and navigation of the new site help you locate what you were looking for?
Yes
No

Do you have any other feedback on the new version of our website? (Optional)

If you are willing to be contacted in the future to help us improve our website, please leave your email address below.

Which of the following best describes your career field or organization?
Student
Academic/Professor
Government Employee
Media Organization
Multilateral Organization
NGO or Nonprofit
Private Sector Firm
World Bank Group
Other

How often do you visit the World Bank website?
This is my first time
Daily
About once a week
About once a month
Every six months or less often

Thank you for participating in this survey! Your feedback is very helpful to us as we work to improve the site functionality on worldbank.org.